880 police stations axed since 1992

A total of 880 police stations in England and Wales have closed in the past 14 years, the Government said.

The vast majority of those still in use are open to the public for only limited hours, with most closing at night.

The figure may be even higher as some forces, including the Metropolitan and West Midlands police, have only provided figures in recent years.

However, since 1992 a total of 376 police stations have opened, meaning the net loss in March this year was 504.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, businessman Stephen Langford died after being attacked by a gang of youths near a police station in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

The station was closed to the public at the time, but officers ran out of it when a member of the public alerted them to the attack, although were too late to catch the offenders.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Since 1992, 880 police stations have closed and 376 have opened.

"It is not entirely odd given that the emphasis is on getting officers on the streets rather than keeping stations open that aren't fulfilling as useful a purpose as they were.

"It is a matter for police authorities whether to keep a police station open or not. Things they take into account are whether a police station has deteriorated and whether a location isn't as useful as it used to be. They don't do it without taking a public survey first."

Of the 880 closures, a total of 516 were under Labour and 364 under John Major's Conservative government. Of the 376 police stations which have opened since 1992, 298 of them opened under Labour and 78 under the Conservatives. In March this year there were 1,758 police stations in England and Wales.